There are very few trailblazers, those willing to risk spending more for the sake of being good stewards without the assurance of positive ROI. These are the people who truly believe in doing the right thing. Our capitalistic society has rewarded cutting corners for the sake of higher profit margins. Sustainability has long been a buzz word that many people didn't even really understanding. This left most to think, "Why should we care unless we know our consumers care?" But, the tides are turning, people are starting to pay close attention in large numbers. Large enough numbers that big brands are taking notice, as they see their market share going to trailblazers. Consumer habits are changing. People are looking for better products and to support better companies. But how do they know what's good?

Social Media? Labels?

It's all marketing these days. Marketing today is very different from marketing of the past. Customer experience, plays a big role. It's a two way street, you set the vision, you deliver, and then consumers take over carrying your brand all over the world (a.k.a. World Wide Web).

People want to feel good about the products they buy, so sustainability matters!

I'm glad to finally see companies like Walmart and McDonalds taking action to move towards greater sustainablity, even if they are small steps. It's about time everyone gets on board.

Whelan says marketers ignore sustainability at their own peril. A typical argument made by marketing professionals is that surveys show that only around 10 percent to 15 percent of consumers actively seek out sustainable products. Instead, Whelan writes that marketers’ job is to make consumers want a product they think they don’t — and sustainability should not be any different.

There is always a risk when trying a new strategy, and using sustainability as a marketing tool carries these risks. Whelan says it’s unusual for companies to lose market share by embracing sustainability and points to McDonalds and UK tea brand PG Tips increasing their sales after using sustainable products.

Furthermore, despite its often dry subject matter, there is no need for sustainability as a subject to be boring, too complicated or expensive, Whelan writes. The article uses the example of the “Follow the Frog” viral video (pictured) produced to promote Rainforest Alliance-certified products. The video reached 1.2 million people and won a TED award.

A study published in June found that so-called meaningful brands outperformed the stock market by 120 percent. Havas Media Group researchers defined the most meaningful brands as those that systematically improve personal and collective well-being of consumers and are rewarded by stronger brand equity and attachment.

The 12 measures of well-being considered include the environment and a “natural” measure. Exactly how much of that good feeling comes from a brand’s environmental performance, Havas didn’t say – though it did note that people in emerging markets place relatively more importance on environmental impacts.

Walmart launched its Epic Green Warriors campaign — each product, such as Glad compostable trash bags and Brita water bottles and filters, has an Epic Warrior sticker — at 2,800 stores to help boost pre-orders for the kids movie, which will become available on DVD and Blu-ray Aug. 20, according to Variety.

By now you may have forgotten that last month Facebook announced it would launch it's new "Timeline" feature by the end of Sept. Well a little problem arose when the company Timeline sued Facebook for infringement. Seems Timeline had a Facebook Fan Page, which Facebook removed to put their own Facebook Timeline information. It would seem to me that Facebook should have purchased the rights from Timeline, but hey some go by the adage "Do what you want and ask for forgiveness later." It's scary to think Facebook would have such a slip in ethical judgement, especially when you consider how much we trust them to put all our personal information in the palm of their hands.

Facebook is now saying they are going to release Timeline as of Oct. 31st. If you want to get the new Timeline feature and learn how to set and manage your security settings, in addition to getting the most out of Facebook, join us Tues. Oct. 25th at IIT in Wheaton, starting at 6:15pm. This class will also be available in December through our new Social Media Essentials cohort starting Nov. 15th.

You can also access Facebook's new Timeline feature now by following simple instructions found in this link:

Always a consumer concern when companies start spending big bucks on lobbying efforts. Several security issues come to mind when you think about Facebook spending 1 million dollars in Washington. So what's a consumer to do - there are 800,000,000 of us now? Keep informed. It's going to be important for "we the people" to keep an eye on Facebook. This post by Jennifer Moire compares Facebook's spending to Google's. Should it give us comfort to know Facebook's 1 million pails in comparison to Google's 8 million annual lobbying budget?

Facebook continues to spend record amounts on lobbying, according to the company’s third quarter filing with the U.S. Senate.

Facebook spent $360,000 last quarter, bringing its lobbying expenditures for 2011 so far to $910,000 — on track to spend more than $1 million this year.

Facebook’s third quarter expenditure is three times what the social network spent during the same period one year ago, and more than the company spent on lobbying, $351,390, in all of 2010.

The third quarter number, which is large compared to the company’s previous filings, is still dwarfed by the spend of other major technology companies in Silicon Valley.

For example, last quarter Google spent more than $2 million on outreach to legislators.

Facebook’s growing lobbying budget is aligned with the tech company’s expanding presence in Washington, D.C., and its public engagement on a range of new policy issues, including job growth strategies and outreach to small businesses.

Facebook issued this statement to us regarding lobbying expenditures:

This increase represents a continuation of our efforts to explain how our service works as well as the important actions we take to protect people who use our service and promote the value of innovation to our economy.

In the past year, Facebook has hired a cadre of seasoned political, communications and policy veterans from previous Republican and Democratic administrations.

Leveraging its network, Facebook has courted Capitol Hill as well as the Obama White House, hosting a town hall with the President at its California campus and launching a joint jobs initiative this week with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Facebook’s growing presence in the nation’s capital has included hiring three lobbying firms to advance its legislative and policy agenda.

According to the Senate database, Facebook is focused on a number of policy issues in 2011, including international regulation of software companies, internet privacy, cyber security, and congressional rules that would allow more members to use social media to engage with constituents.

In addition to lobbying at the federal level, Facebook also reaches out to lawmakers in its home state of California.

Earlier this year, Facebook scored a major victory in Sacramento, persuading state legislators to vote against a bill that would have made more user information private on social networking websites.

Readers, do you think Facebook is spending too much money on lobbying or not enough?

About a year ago, I wrote an article with guidelines on writing a website design and development Request for Proposal (RFP), which received a great response. Now I think it’s high time to do the same thing for those wishing to engage an agency for Social Media Marketing and other Online Marketing and Advertising consultation and implementation.

Below are my suggestions of how to prepare an RFP for social media projects, retainers and campaigns. I also suggest doing research online and viewing other Request for Proposals to see what works best for your organization. Keep in mind that whatever format you choose will determine not only how long the responses are, but also what type of focus you are looking for from the respondents. Each section of the RFP is outlined below, along with some explanation and suggested questions. Have fun!

Information about your organization and project

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to give a brief overview of the company issuing the RFP and the social media project or desired work relationship between the company and the vendor. Provide as much information as you feel is necessary to allow vendors to prepare an accurate proposal. If you feel that there is certain proprietary or other information that you do not wish to make public, require a Non Disclosure Agreement be signed before receiving that information. This may limit the participation of vendors, but it is oftentimes necessary to protect private information.

1. Company Overview

Organizational history

Your business objectives

Your company’s history using social media or reasons why your organization intends to begin to participate in social media

2. Overview of Project

State the project objectives and how they relate to the business objectives stated above. Explain the type of vendor relationship desired i.e. Project-based, Agency of Record, etc. Explain the current involvement your organization has with social media channels and how they relate to both your organization’s primary presence and any related campaigns

Explain the social media channels you wish the campaign to involve, unless you are looking for suggestions of which to use, then please specify that to the vendors

Explain how the project fits into your overall marketing strategy (online and offline) and if there is another vendor involved in other aspects of your Advertising and Marketing initiatives

Explain the measurable outcomes you would like to see

Explain the duration of the work – is it a temporary campaign, or an ongoing organizational marketing platform?

Identify if any market or audience research will be necessary in the execution of the campaign

4. Overview of Response

Make it clear the type of response you are looking for:

Are you looking for a hypothetical approach, or an explanation of the vendor’s process of how they will come to create your campaign. Many times a hypothetical approach is not the best way to approach an RFP process simply because a vendor will be missing several key pieces of information that might negatively affect their ability to propose a specific solution. We suggest looking for more general responses and weighing the effectiveness of past client work heavily

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

In order to give all qualified vendors a level playing field, it’s important to set up an easy to follow schedule for both when your RFP is issued, when and to whom questions are allowed, and when and in what format responses are required

Specify the date the RFP was issued (Month, Day, Year). If your RFP is publicly listed, it will help those searching for RFPs on Google or by other methods to find relevant Request for Proposals

An optional requirement is to specify that all interested vendors register their intent to submit a proposal by a certain date – usually within 1-2 weeks of the RFP issue. This is a good way to limit the potential number of vendors who respond if you anticipate a large volume of proposals and would rather receive a smaller amount

We recommend allowing a question and answer period that ends at least 1 week before the proposal is due. It is up to you whether to allow questions by email, conference call or individual phone calls. We do recommend that you share all the questions (and answers) with all interested vendors in order to keep things as equal as possible. Always specify which format -phone call, email, and to whom these questions should be addressed. We recommend identifying a single person in your organization to be the point of contact. Just make sure vacation schedules, etc don’t interfere with this process, and if there is any other reason why the primary point of contact might need to be out of town during the process, specify a secondary point of contact

Responses from issuer to be sent by 20XX in the following formats (specify whether electronic submissions, hard copies or both must be either emailed, mailed or hand-delivered)

On the basis of the replies to the RFP document, a short list of potential vendors will be selected and this group will be asked to present demonstrations of their capabilities and vision for the project. These meetings will be completed by XXth, 20XX

Awarding of the contract to selected Vendor by XXth, 20XX

Work to commence by 20XX and to last until (if applicable)

Vendor Questions and Qualifications

The following is a series of questions that, if applicable, we suggest you ask the vendors submitting proposals. Some may not apply, but it is a great idea to get as much of an idea of the vendor’s approach and philosophy on social media as possible. Compare the responses both among each other, and to the research and reading that you have done to make sure that the vendor is up to date with the latest thinking and best practices.

COMPANY DETAILS

Company name and parent company name

Ownership structure

Years in operation

Mailing address (headquarters)

Other office location(s)

Primary phone

Fax number

Website and blog URL

Primary point of contact (name, title, phone and email address)

Total number of employees

Number of vendor employees whose primary function is social media

Current client list with those engaged in social media work identified

Percentage of total revenue that is social-media related

Three references for social media work including; company name, primary client name, contact details and brief explanation of services provided

Any potential conflicts with existing vendor client base and this RFP

Senior social media staff bios and links to social media profiles where applicable

Please provide a complete list of relevant social media platform and technology partners

References from clients currently engaged in social media work with the vendor

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE

List all social media and online marketing capabilities

Do you have any proprietary tools or products related to social media?

Please list any experience you have with integrating social, paid and/or earned media

Is there a specific industry or type of work your firm specializes in?

If you are selected to provide social media services, who will be assigned to our business (please provide names, titles and short biographical notes)

What percentage of senior staff involvement is structured in to your projects? What role do they play?

How are your projects priced? Using an hourly rate? Blended agency rate? If the former, please provide a rate card

What change management practices does your agency employ?

What reports will be provided to the client in order to communicate project milestones and overall project health?

What is the frequency of these reports?

What is your process for gathering business requirements?

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a good first step when considering Online Marketing and Social Media work as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct an effective, integrated campaign. A well thought-out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.